Member Reviews
I am looking through books I have on Netgalley that haven't been downloaded, a problem when Netgalley had problems or when my computer had problems, where a lot of books were lost. Anyways I realize that this is part of an ongoing series which I have not read, it has been a few years and I am sorry to say I do not think I will read it.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately I have been unable to get into it.
This book, when taken as a YA paranormal romance with no tie-ins to the real world works very well. The world is developed enough that I can see it in my mind's eye, the characters all have their distinct voices and grow as the book progresses and the action zips the story along at a fast and fun speed.
There were a few head-scratching, wait-a-second moments, but that could have been because I was FLYING through this and I may have missed something and I didn't want to go back to try to find the passage that explained things. (HUGE negative on eBook format, NOT on the book itself.)
I read this in practically one sitting. I would have finished it, but it was past midnight and my eyelids were starting to feel like sandpaper. I did finish it the next day though.
Now, why only 3 stars and not four or five?
It's not theologically sound. (dodges rotten vegetables and fruit)
Yes, I know, I know. It's fiction, but I have certain beliefs regarding angels, demons, Heaven and Hell and this book does not follow that belief structure. If the characters are angels and demons, then I expect things to go certain ways, which this did not.
That only knocked it down one star. The other? Xavier.
I'm sorry, but if you love someone and they are saying something bad is going to happen and they can show where the bad guy is slowly gaining power, you should at LEAST look into it yourself, rather than TAKE THE SIDE OF THE EVIL DEMON and claim that the EVIL DEMON would never do what your love is saying WHEN YOU ARE AN ARCHANGEL WHO BOOTED THE DEMON'S BUTT OUT OF HEAVEN!!!!!!!
So that. But also HE DIDN'T BACK HIS WOMAN WHEN IT COUNTED.
What the evil demon did is crucial to where the characters are now, but the guy COULD have backed her, but the evil demon could still have succeeded with the archangel BACKING HIS WOMAN UP.
So that left a tad of a sour taste in my mouth, not gonna lie.
However, despite all of that, this book really rocked my socks off. It is the first in a series, so I will be continuing with it, definitely.
There is violence in this book, most of it leaving most of the description to your imagination, though many innocent are hurt and killed, mostly off-page. Nothing more than kisses shown, though more is alluded to. The MC h is part demon, with Lust and Wrath as her specialties. Another character is also part Lust demon and until he gets distracted by another character, he is pressing unwanted attention onto the MC h, though she does handle herself well. Some adult language and the MC and her people are enslaved by their overlords, so definitely mature topics running throughout this book. I would say YA to higher.
3 stars, though highly recommended if you like action-packed paranormal romance that doesn't stall once. Very good book.
My thanks to NetGalley and Monster House Books, LLC for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.
I received this eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.
Myla just wants to fight in the arena 24/7. As a quasi-demon, she is amazing at kicking ass and she loves the thrill when she wins a fight. Sadly, she still has to go to school for her senior year to get placed in a job afterward. She's not too worried about it now, because she's hoping to be a fighter.
And every time Walker, her ghoul, comes to take her to the arena, Myla just gets more and more excited. Even though lately, not all of the summons she has is to fight. There is a power struggle going between Armageddon, the self made ruler of Purgatory, who should be in Hell since he's a demon, and Verus, the angel who does not want these evil souls to come to Heaven. And because of this power struggle, the structure of Purgatory is breaking apart piece by piece.
Myla also seems to be in the middle of this struggle, even though she has no idea why. When her mother allows Verus to give her dreamscapes about her mom's past, Myla realizes that all those times she asked about who her father is was something she may not want to know now.
And as if that wasn't enough, she is also dealing with the arrogant High Prince Lincoln who thinks she is scum in Purgatory because she is a demon. Myla is all for hating Lincoln, but lately she's starting to think it may be more than hate she feels for him. In fact, it may be the completely opposite, which is just ridiculous.
Life for Myla is about to be turned upside down, and she's going to have to figure out how to deal with all of the changes, or be defeated by the evil minds in Purgatory.
OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! Why have I been prolonging reading this book?!? Well, because it's a series and I wanted all of the books, but that's not the point. The point is that I really really really liked this novel! It's so unique from other books out there, and from the ones that I've read, and the author did an amazing job describing and creating this new world for me to live in :)
Myla is amazing. Seriously, I want to be her friend. I can be her and Cissy's friend, right? Well, maybe not Cissy as much because she is such a drama queen, but she is completely loyal to Myla, so I could deal with her.
The sass that Myla has is just ridiculous and I'm always hoping that she will back talk someone every page I read :) And she is so brave. She goes to the arena ready to fight, but she also has to be in the presence of Armageddon, which is no joke to do.
Then the tension between her and Lincoln just flies off the chart!! There was so many feelings that Myla was going through and she just couldn't figure out why she was feeling that toward a guy who was obviously resenting Myla's existence.
I so loved this book and I'm very glad that I have most of the books in the series so I can dive right in and continue reading about Myla's grand adventure, now that everything has changed for her :)
Sadly this one just didn't hit that love stage. I liked it but it's more of a like than a love. I wanted to love it, but the plot itself just fell a little short for me.
What I want to know, is why aren't people talking about this book??? At what point did this one get showed under a pile of other "better" books. Especially in this day and age. Where people want a strong heroine capable of not only looking out for herself but kicking some major ass too. Where the plot is thick, story extremely well developed, and the love interest, chiseled and juicy. Where there's magic, and angels and demons. And thrax, to hunt the demons. And there is heaven and hell, and purgatory is where the souls come before their final destination. Where ghouls run the show and souls can fight quasi-demons in the arena to earn their way into heaven. Where Scala is the one who dispatches souls and whoever controls the Scala can control the worlds. Where Armageddon the high king of hell, the one who defeated the quasi-demons and gave ghouls control over the purgatory, now wishes to wrestle that control away so he can decide where souls spend eternity.
Meet Myla, the biggest baddest quasi-demon to walk the purgatory. Her sharp wit & fast reflexes have made her the toughest fighter in the arena. And her small stature means every soul thinks beating her will grant them enterance into heaven. Boy did they think wrong. But there's more to Myla Lewis than meets the eye. And family secrets that she tries to dig up will put her into truble she never saw coming. When Armageddon starts scheming and planning it's Myla, together with the help of Thrax crown prince & few good friends, who'll have to stop him.
This is everything and more you would want in a paranormal-ya-romance mix. It takes the best out of all of the above and mixes it into something extra, something special, something you didn't see coming and something that might just take your breath away. A book you will not be able to put down
I don't think I've ever read a story with a demon character like this. All I've read are mostly witches, or fae of some sort. I think this has huge potential. It reminded me of one of my favorite anime only it's not. I love the idea of a demon arena. This concept isn't new, but I feel like it is an untapped story concept. At the same time I feel like too much was piled into the story to really make it spectacular. It felt like it needed to be revised a bit more and thinned out especially if it was to be as series. I think the whole demon, purgatory concept with Myla trumps a lot of the other issues I and many other readers had. It needs to be matured a bit more in the character dynamic. For a title classified as teen the dialog seemed a bit childish and petty and not entirely age appropriate. I know teenagers are technically kids, but they aren't middle schoolers either. Teen emotions are wide and varied, but they're complex and deserve to be described as such. I hope the character development gets better and reads more like a teenager's tale.
Myla Lewis is a teenager is a real demon and when I say demon I mean tail and all. She lives in a world controlled by ghouls who have basically enslaved the demons. Myla's highlight is fighting in the Purgatory's arena against souls who want to fight for their right to choose where to go. There is certainly action, adventure and even quite a dose of romance in this story. I'm sorry to say though that this book was one that I actually struggled with - I just found I didn't connect with the characters nor the way the story unfolded. I was disappointed because I really enjoyed Christina Bauer's other book that I had recently read, 'Wolves and Roses' , and I wanted to find something great about this book as well. I know that there will be plenty of readers who will find merit in this story and Christina certainly has a skill with words but this one wasn't for me and really isn't one that I found overly interesting.
This was a fun read and a plan on looking up the others in the series and recommending it to my library. Myla's a good strong character and I enjoyed the way she handled the different situations.
Goodreads Synopsis:
Eighteen year old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two things: kicking ass and kicking ass. She’s not your every day quasi-demon, half-demon and half-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight in Purgatory’s arena. When souls want a trial by combat for their right to enter heaven or hell, they go up against her, and she hasn’t lost a battle yet.
But as she starts her senior year at Purgatory High, the arena fights aren’t enough to keep her spirits up anymore. When the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of the Demons, Armageddon, shows up at Myla’s school, she knows that things are changing and it’s not looking good for the quasi-demons. Myla starts to question everything, and doesn’t like the answers she finds. What happened seventeen years ago that turned the quasi-demons into slave labor? Why was her mom always so sad? And why won’t anyone tell her who her father is?
Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, the High Prince of the Thrax, a super sexy half-human and half-angel demon hunter. But what’s a quasi-demon girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? It’s a good thing that Myla’s not afraid of breaking a few rules. With a love worth fighting for, Myla’s going to shake up Purgatory.
My Review:
I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Long time arena fighter, Myla Lewis is a quasi-demon living in purgatory. Her world is run by ghoulish overlords, and not everyone is happy about that. Juggling school drama, fighting job and her moms latest outbursts, she has a lot going on. Things are changing, and their world is on the brink of a war.
Honestly at first I thought I wasn't going to like this book. It kind of jumped and there was a lot going on. It was a little hard to get into, but after the first quarter of the book I got used to it and actually started wondering what was going to happen next. The characters were kind of confusing at first but once everything was explained I liked them. I'm hoping for more exciting things to happen in the second book, I feel like a lot of this was just the characters sitting around talking. The almost sex scene was super awkward, and kind of out of place in my opinion.
Overall I enjoyed reading this unique book and I like the cover. I wasn't sure about it at first but I liked it in the end. I will be reading the next book in the series. Check it out and see what you think.
Here's a link to the book on Amazon.ca, and another link for the authors twitter.
https://www.amazon.ca/Angelbound-Origins-Christina-Bauer-ebook/dp/B00EQGQ6OI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510283356&sr=8-1&keywords=angelbound
https://twitter.com/CB_Bauer
Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)
This book is certainly different from other SciFi ones I’ve read. Couldn’t get caught up into the characters and the premise of the story was lost on me. Not one I believe would be enjoyed by the Library patrons.
This book wasn't what I really expected. TO be honest, I thought that I would hate it because it took quite a while to get into. Before I knew it I was sucked in and really invested in Myla and her families secrets. The romance was very slow, and I found the interaction between Myla and Lincoln to be very stale and not very realistic, and the speed at which Cissy and Zeke get together and within a day they're sort of obsessed with each other when Cissy has never really spoken to him or anything was a bit annoying to me, but the story of Myla's family is what really got me hooked. I'm excited to have read it and I really want to continue on with the series from here!
Myla Lewis is an eighteen-year-old girl who lives in world unlike any other. She is strong and funny all while trying to manage high school. The relationship with her love interest, Lincoln, is slow to build but well worth the wait. I fell that the world the author created was awesome and unlike any other. I do find reading about the demons and angels to be interesting. I found that this was a very fascinating and exciting story with many unsuspected curves along the way. Like when Myla learns the truth about her family and the history of their civilization. She even learns a lot about herself. If you like books with an ending that you do not expect, then this is a book for you.
Angelbound by Christina Bauer is the first book from the Angelbound Origins series.
This is a really different and unique story (IMHO) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's full of adventure and is hilarious at times too.
Myla is a quasi-demon, she appears human with the exception of a tail. She lives in Purgatory and she's been battling in the Arena since she was twelve, fighting souls who chose combat instead of trial to determine whether they go to Hell or Heaven. Myla has never lost a fight before and has been sending evil souls straight to Hell.
There's been a shift of things in Purgatory where Demons and Angels have been making a lot of appearances. Even the Thrax community has moved in (they're usually based in Antrum). Myla met the High Prince of Thrax at a party and tension has been high between them ever since. Thrax are known to fight and kill demons. To the Thrax people, Myla as a quasi IS a demon.
Twenty years ago, there was a war in Purgatory where the Quasi rule was overthrown and now Purgatory is ruled by the Ghouls. Now, it seems the Demons (led by Armageddon) wants to take over Purgatory from the Ghouls. Myla finds herself stuck in the middle of this new war led by Armageddon. Throughout all this, Myla grew closer and closer with Lincoln, the High Prince of Thrax.
At the end, Myla finds a life-changing experience happening for her and there's no way to go back at all; she has to face her fate.
I really enjoyed Angelbound and will be reading the rest of this series too.